Indonesia: Indigenous peoples speak out against Merauke project
© Solidaritas Merauke
Mar 15, 2025
The “Merauke Declaration of Solidarity” is the result of an Indigenous meeting held from March 11 to 14 in South Papua. Indigenous people are demanding a halt to the two-million-hectare sugar and bioethanol project by the Indonesian government.
256 Indigenous representatives from Sumatra, Borneo, Papua and other regions of Indonesia gathered in Merauke, located in southern Papua, from March 11 to 14, 2025. The Deputy Minister of Human Rights, the Chairman of the Human Rights Commission and politicians from the province of South Papua were also present. The focus of the meeting was the Merauke National Strategic Project (PSN Merauke), which plans to cultivate sugarcane and rice on more than two million hectares.
Dozens of similar projects are being implemented across Indonesia, often enforced with military intervention and at the expense of the environment and Indigenous communities. Examples include “Food Estates” in Borneo and Sumatra, the geothermal project on Flores co-financed by Germany’s KfW development bank, the new capital on Borneo and wood plantations for bioenergy on Sumatra. However, the project in Merauke is the largest and is expected to have the most severe impact on rainforests, biodiversity, the climate and – most critically – the Indigenous Marind and Yei peoples.
Please sign our petition: “Indonesia: Stop the destruction of Papua’s Marind forest!”
The discussion at the meeting was intense. Indigenous representatives expressed alarm over the massive disruptions to nature and their way of life. They passionately demanded an immediate halt to these projects.
The Merauke Declaration of Solidarity states that Indigenous peoples are traumatized by crimes committed by the state and corporations that rob them of their ancestral lands and devalue everything they hold sacred:
Merauke Declaration of Solidarity
The destruction and eradication of our Indigenous lives, knowledge systems and spirituality continue to escalate. We are losing our identity, our historical memory, our sacred places and our kinship with the land and nature. The same applies to our food sources, medicine, livelihoods and economic independence. Additionally, we face discrimination, forced labor, physical violence, intimidation and criminalization. This catastrophe is an emergency threatening our peoples’ survival.
This ongoing suffering reflects colonialism, thinly disguised by a patchwork of laws. It is a cruel irony that amid this plundering of wealth, coercion through legal, political, economic and military power, false promises of prosperity and destruction of human dignity, people are offered consolation in the form of a “free nutritious meal.”
We, the Merauke Solidarity Movement, strongly oppose the confiscation of wealth through new laws. We demand an immediate halt to National Strategic Projects and other initiatives pursued in the name of national interest that clearly sacrifice local communities. Those responsible for state and corporate crimes must return all stolen wealth and immediately restore people’s health and living spaces in all areas devastated for so-called national interests. For them, no island is too big or too small to destroy nature. If these glaring signs of disaster are ignored, socio-ecological chaos will accelerate at an unprecedented scale across islands from Papua to Sumatra.
Satu Kekuatan! Satu Perjuangan! Rawat Kehidupan!
Merauke, 14 Maret 2025
